hawcian:My parents knew another rather rich couple who owned a few McDonald's back during the Beanie Baby craze. They gave us enough complete unopened sets of the McDonald's special version (smaller ones?) so that me and my sister both had a complete set to just have and complete set to never open. Pretty sure I still have them all, never got around to getting rid of them. They're worthless.

And no, I don't know how my parents came to be friends with people who owned a bunch of fast food restaurants.

I'll bet they were swingers. Good luck getting that image out of your head now.

TheXerox:I had a high school job at McDonald's when they were giving away Beanie Babies with the happy meals. People could buy up to ten happy meals per visit, they did and we would bust our humps to accommodate them and the zillion or so other people in our store only to see them grab the toys from the boxes and throw the food right into the trash. I believe that was the day I lost faith in humanity.

Well to be fair, the food is pretty terrible. I'm willing to bet that the beanie baby itself had more nutritional value.

Whenever I go to one of those outdoor flea markets, there is always some shlump or two selling those things. Some are still deluded enough to try and get the "collector" price. But some have finally come to the crushing realization that they may have been duped. I like to go to those tables, let my daughter pick one out, give the person the dollar or two and then immediately rip the tag off and hand it to my daughter. The look on their faces is priceless.

He never had lunch money so he'd eat whatever was left on our plates, some times I'd feel sorry for him. but then he'd get money and buy the dumbest shiat from gas stations, like a commemorative zippo lighter, or a race car with Dale Sr. on it...and we'd be like dude, stop.

This family was pretty much guaranteed to be bankrupt, one scam or th' other, in a few years. At least Beanie Baby heads don't steal as many air conditioners as meth-heads, don't pester me on Facebook like MLM drones, and don't wreck the national economy like house-flippers and day traders. Meh.